#also shoutout to chef Boyardee that’s all I ate as a child

[tkpuke]

No Crime in Relaxing

Pairing - Eddie Munson x Reader

Word count: 3,222

In which the growing distance away from your friends only caused one person to notice. To notice the color draining out your adored personality. To notice how long it’s been since you last laughed or even pulled a tiny smile. That person being your best friend, Eddie Munson.

This is a tickle fic. Please do not read if that’s not your thing.

Your conversations to your friends all slowly became the same. Discussing on their next hangout, giggling about how fun it’ll be spending time together by being dumb young teenagers, then heads turning to you to see if you’re in. Bowling, skating, and late night kickbacks. It guarantees you a blast, but you give your friends a apologetic look with a quiet ‘no, sorry.’ Each and every time.

‘No biggie’, is what they always tell you. Will they ever get past seeing it as a “no biggie”, and maybe question if you’re doing alright? You give it your best to try attending invites to parties n such, finding a way to work with your strict curfew set by your parents. You usually do, in fact, make it every time. Though these past couple of weeks you found yourself going straight home after school, alone in your room doing homework and study your ass off until night falls where you plop into bed for the next day to repeat the cycle.

The cycle you fully blame on your parents. Your parents have set expectations on you since day one. They remind you everyday, but lately their expectations has started to weigh heavy on your shoulders. The exhaustion of desperately trying to live up their dream of having the most perfect and smartest kid in Hawkins kicked in, leaving you unmotivated to keep up the good scores in tests and be the top of everything when it leaves them unsatisfied at the end. Your parents want more, thinking you can do better.

Focused so much on completing the goals they have on you which only benefits them and earn bragging rights when speaking to other parents, that they completely turned a blind eye on how it might’ve left a negative toll on you.

The one person who seemed to have an immediate problem on not having enough time for them, was Eddie Munson. Doesn’t take awhile to note he can’t live without getting unlimited attention from his close friends dear to his heart. You are nearing top three on his list who owns a special spot in his heart, which comes down to him wanting to spend as much time with you as possible.

You never complained. Eddie gave you the type of friendship everyone envied to have in a guy best friend. Sharing deep conversations at Skull Rock, inviting you over to his trailer to give you a sick mini concert in his room, to the time you snorted out your milkshake from your nose because Eddie’s jokes were gold. There was not a single dull moment you’ve had with him.

Explains the great pain you’ve gotten with the amount of times you had to decline his offers to spend quality time with you.

“Sorry, Eddie.” Is all you say, tucking some hair behind your ear as you walk down the halls, three books in your arms. You heard footsteps behind you, Eddie giving gentle pushes to people followed by ‘excuse me’s’ to try walking beside you.

“No no, I totally get it. Drive-in movies are outdated.” Eddie starts, beaming from his next suggestion as he shakes your shoulders a bit. “But playing DND isn’t.”

Dungeons and Dragons hasn’t failed in getting you to cave in whenever you swore to Eddie you were busy. Your slight obsession to the game was what brought you two close, playing together until feeling burned out. You knew Eddie probably thought he had reeled you in with this one, but from all the declines and distancing to your friends has made it easy to even refuse an activity you would agree on doing in a heartbeat.

“I can’t today.” You haven’t made eye contact with him once since the start of this conversation. The confused yet disappointed expression he’ll soon wear would bring a strong wave of guilt towards you. You can’t bear to face that, especially since you damn well know you can make time for anyone, just the determination of pleasing your parents is what’s pulling you back.

Eddie damn well knows too. Of course he does, he’s your best friend.

You halted your movements the minute Eddie got in front of you, blinking in complete surprise. “Okay, what? You’re always down in playing DND. What’s so important right now other than that?”

You scoff a little. “Heading to the library to study for Mrs. Eyerly’s next big biology test. You should try it sometime.” Adding the last part couldn’t be helped, you constantly nagged him to put more effort in his classes by joining you in study sessions. The repeated no’s irked you a bit.

Your small library trips weren’t unknown to him. The library card makes an appearance whenever you open your wallet around Eddie. Although, it isn’t a place you would call your second home.

“Bullshit. I refuse to believe someone study’s for two weeks straight and still be completely sane.”

You give off an eye-roll, sometimes forgetting how dramatic Eddie is. “Do you not see the books in my hands? I’m not bullshitting.”

You took a step to walk around him, but he quickly blocks your path a second time. “Give yourself a break, Y/N. There’s nothing wrong with doing that.”

Your eyes falls down to your shoes, avoiding his now softened gaze. “Yes there is.” You took off as soon as you replied, not looking back. You felt Eddie’s eyes watching you leave, holding back in catching up to continue the pathetic argument. Eddie knows this won’t be the last time your conversations will end like how it did. When next time rolls around, he’ll fight back.

The morning newspaper was waved at your face, Eddie pointing at a certain title through the list of movie showings tonight. “Aliens tonight, sweetheart. Me, you, and the rest of the group.”

You snagged it out from his hands, reading the timings. There was one time where it showed just before the sun will set, and you assumed that’s the timing Eddie was planning to go see. Bless him, for understanding you had no control over your early curfew but still made plans regardless because he worked along with it pretty well.

“There’s no reason to back down. You’ve been waiting on the edge of your seat for Aliens to release ever since the first one came out.” He’s right. Ever since the first movie, you’ve been obsessed with anything horror. Then you discovered the Alien comics, so you kept busy reading all of those while waiting for a continuation. A new interest of yours lead to talking Eddie’s ear off about all your own theories and fangirling. He never mind, he thought the first one was as amazing as you perceived it. If there’s one thing Eddie loved about you, is how you get into deep detailed conversations about your special interests.

“This might be a long movie. I’m not sure if I’ll be home in time for dinner.” You attempted. Not your best excuse, because when were you ever a big fan of your parents cooking? You rather stick with microwave TV dinners.

“Tell your parents after the movies you’ll have dinner at whoever’s friend’s house since they offered.” Eddie shrugged like it was no big deal, but there’s one thing that is.

“I think they’ll get a heart attack if I tell them I’m gonna watch Aliens.” You thanked your good friend, Jenna, at the time to convince your parents to let you spend the night then immediately buying two tickets to watch Alien. Some days you would do anything to go back to sweet ol’ 79, wanting to experience the film for the very first time again.

At this moment, especially considering how this past month has been for you, there’s no way your parents will buy you wanting to have a sleepover tonight at some friend’s house. They already have the mindset that since you’re a senior, you grew past all those “kiddy” stuff. Besides, you can’t even think of one lunch friend you’re close enough with to stay the night over.

“Uh, I know. Which is exactly why I’m giving you ideas on how to lie to them.” Eddie scoffs, seeing you stay in silence for a couple of seconds while kicking pebbles nearby.

He releases a sigh before speaking once more. “I don’t think you understand how not only me, but the whole group misses you.” A hand squeezes your shoulder, causing you to finally meet his eyes. “It’s okay to take a break once in awhile. Fuck your parents for telling you otherwise.”

You let out a breathy laugh, nodding your head understandably to his comforting words.  Comfort, All Eddie gives you in your troubling times without hesitation. You never had to verbally ask for him to reassure your growing worries away, he just knows when it’s the right time for his help. You believe without a doubt Eddie having the ability to read his friends’ moods like an open book so fantastically is his gifted sixth sense. He’s been by your side since day one, you were too blind beforehand to realize.

A barely visible smile tugs on the corner of your lips, saying ‘thank you’ by playfully punching his shoulder in your guy’s own made up physical language.

“Well, what are we waiting for? We have a movie to catch.”

The long line to the ticket booth brought no shock for everyone. The wait gave you a chance to catch up with everyone, also apologizing profusely when Gareth purposefully made you feel guilty for all the times you missed out on the hellfire campaign nights due to your stressful study sessions. Jeff shares his gratefulness that you’re here now and that is all that matters, Eddie agreeing.

The minute you sat down, you couldn’t contain your legs from bouncing with excitement. Every single scene got you watching intently, absolutely refusing to do a bathroom break until the very end of the movie. You wouldn’t dare to miss anything. Jeff and Gareth made a few whisper comments to each other during the middle of it, causing you to shush them by giving a single glare to your right.

You gained the urge to snack, Eddie giving you his popcorn. Apparently you were supposed to share, because when you handed back the paper bag empty, he crumbled it up and flicked it to your cheek before forcing Jeff or Gareth to get up and buy some more. You had no regrets, buttery popcorn tastes amazing while you watch people getting beaten down by a bunch of horrifying aliens. 

The movie eventually came to an end, all four of you walking out as everyone discussed their favorite scenes with the thrill of wanting to watch it a second time.

“Man, I’m telling you, Ripley is a total badass.” Eddie practically swooned. You wouldn’t understand why anybody would not have the hots for the main character. Having the guts to face giant creatures a second time willingly is the kind of bravery everyone is immediately attracted to.

“Newt is definitely my new favorite. She is so adorable.” You added in the topic of which character sucked and which didn’t.

“I for sure thought she was gonna die when those ugly son of a bitches took her.” Jeff said, shuddering a little in picturing himself ending up in Newt’s situation.

“What, you mean like this?” Suddenly you felt arms wrap tightly around your torso, feet high off the ground. “Eddie!” You yelped, getting spun around as he pretended to gobble on your neck with growling noises for dramatic theatrical points. Lips never touched your skin, but the close proximity along with the growling sent a ticklish chill down your spine.

Before you even had time to giggle, the playful attack ended as soon as it started. From how quick it all happened, the group all laughed due to your confused yet startled reaction afterwards.

Although, you smiled right after, because moments like these are exactly what you’ve missed so dearly.

You gave your goodbye waves to Gareth and Jeff before hopping in the car with Eddie in the driver’s seat. When arriving at the trailer, you mentioned you were a little bit hungry thanks to only filling your stomach up with popcorn.

“I can fix something up for you.” Eddie suggests but the nervous rubbing on the back of his neck tells you he doesn’t have much to serve a perfect gourmet meal. The possibility of eating ramen or Chef Boyardee ravioli didn’t matter, food is food.

“Don’t worry, I know you aren’t the world’s best chef.” You say with a bit of tease lacing your tone. Eddie lightly scoffs, crossing his arms. “It was one time I almost burnt this entire place down. One.”

You giggled, briefly going back to that memory. Eddie trying to surprise you with delicious banana bread for your birthday went south before he could even blink. Eddie learned two things that day. Baking is not his speciality, and there’s nothing wrong in going to the mall to buy a cute necklace instead, rather than going the extra mile and baking dessert as your gift.

“I miss hearing your laugh.” He says, catching you off guard. A nice shade of pink becomes visible on your cheeks, fiddling a strand of your hair whenever you’ve become too flustered to speak. You felt a little guilty as well, noticing you haven’t been the happiest usually this past month.

“Time to hear more of that.” Your thoughts became interrupted with Eddie joining you on the couch, gently tackling you down. You squeaked in complete surprise of feeling ten fingers tickling you silly on your sides.

“Noho EDDIE!” You rolled off the couch, scrambling to stand up quickly. You mentally scolded yourself for forgetting ever since Eddie discovered how ridiculously ticklish you are, he found just about every reason he could to tickle your breath away. You’re being a pain in the ass? He’ll focus on your worst spot until you’re spluttering out giggly apologies. You’re laughing when he’s in unlucky situations? He will give you something better to laugh about. Oh, you’re just minding your own business by simply existing? Too peaceful for Eddie, you’re getting a tickle attack whether you were prepared for it or not.

You kept glancing behind, making sure you would not trip on anything as you’re backing away in fear. Eddie has no problem chasing after you. You know this. Whenever you think you’ve successfully gotten away, he scares the absolute shit out of you from thin air. The speed Eddie gains when he runs is terrifying, to say the least.

“C’mon, don’t make this hard.” Eddie takes another step forward, opening his arms for a warm innocent hug. “Bring it in.”

You weren’t gonna give up so easily. You swore, actually. Although, you guessed God decided you needed this more than anything, because the minute you turned your heel to run, Eddie caught you by solely taking two big steps.

“All I asked for was a hug, but you decided to make a run from it?” The light squeezes on the lower set of your ribs instantly took you apart, burying your entire face in his chest which muffled your shrieking laughter. “My hugs can’t be that bad, can it?” Eddie asked you calmly like you weren’t slowly going limp in his arms.

“Yohou weren’t gohona hug meHEHE!” You squealed when his nimble fingers crept higher, aiming for under your arms.

A gasp escaped his lips, mocking offense. “Are you calling me a liar? I think you just did.” Hands meeting their destination, Eddie following you to the floor as your legs gave out.

He pulled your back against his chest, his arms wrapped around your torso giving his hands an easy time to skitter up and down to the top of your ribs and down to your hips, over and over again. Heels digging for purchase on the floor, hoping it’d give you a strength boost to rip away from his grasp.

He caught on. Of course Eddie caught on, because he only made the embrace tighter. “Going somewhere? Must suck to realize you can’t do anything but kick your legs endlessly.”

You grew nervous the more time Eddie spent skittering around your stomach area, dangerously going close to your hips. Targeting the hips earns a wild snort from you, then being sprinkled with hiccups in between. A priceless reaction, one Eddie loves to see. You were aware he is mere seconds from digging his two thumbs deeply on the soft spots near your hip bones.

“Eddie, plehehease. I’m smiling, okaHAY? I’m happy! No moHORE! GOHOD!” Stopping near your waist, squirming uncontrollably by anticipation. Eddie grins, one you don’t trust. The sudden latching on your hips made you jump a literal inch off the ground, grabbing onto his wrists like it would help the slightest in stopping everything.

“You’re right, and I’m so glad you are. Do you want to know what tells me you’re really happy?” You didn’t want to know, because you already know. Thumbs harshly drilling your hips nonstop for thirty seconds felt like hours on your poor end. Needless to say, you snorted. Loud. The hiccuping came shortly after, cuing Eddie to pull his hands back.

“Aaaand stopping.” Eddie beams in delight, being nice enough to rub away the leftover ticklish sensations for you. That is until he pinched your thigh to catch you off guard, rewarded with a shocked squeak. “Or am I?”

“You’ll be wanted for murder, because I’ll seriously die.” You over-exaggerate, showing Eddie a thankful look for finally leaving your ticklish spots alone and helping you up. ”I guess my work here is done.” Eddie says while dusting his hands together.

“Thank you, Eddie.” For not just getting you to loosen up. Not for having to fight for you to open your eyes and realize how the distance towards the people you love has taken a toll on your everyday lovable personality. Not for breaking the unhealthy cycle you forced yourself on, stressing weekly on being the top of all your classes purely for your parents pride in you.

For being right there, by your side, since day one. You never saw hesitation flicker across Eddie’s face whenever he had to step in to cheer you up. Eddie got his priorities straight, and that’s checking daily you’re comfortable and in a good mood before he can be.

He nodded a ‘you’re welcome’, his dimple smile revealing itself. “Now,” Eddie fetched two cans of Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs, also setting two bowls on the small kitchen table. “Let’s feast, shall we?”